“Gottas” for Success

After having counseled and coached literally hundreds of individuals and many families spread across my career, I’m convinced there are five critical elements for success in any specific endeavor and in life in general.

Four of these are not so unique to me; you’ll find entire books written concerning the first four. They are:

1. Decision - all movement begins with a decision. When Jesus said, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” I believe he was referring to the God-given POWER to make a decision. Decisions create paths we can then choose to walk down. A decision to get up from where we are and walk into a new life borders on the supernatural and is the beginning of all success. However, one step does not take us to the end. We need to follow through with the next critical element for success.
2. Focus - focus gives a decision legs and drives us forward to follow through with the first step, second and third steps to begin to carry us into the new life we have made a decision to pursue. In the same way that anyone has within their power the ability to make a decision, we all have the power to focus our attention, energy, emotions and efforts on our direction and movement toward the fulfillment of our decision-initiated dreams. But, we have to keep keeping on.
3. Belief - without strong belief in ourselves, in our calling and direction, we will not be able to maintain focus. Beliefs can be changed. Those that are simply accumulated from others and are not our own must be examined and possibly discarded in favor of core beliefs–the things we REALLY believe in.
4. Perseverance - focus must be maintained and strengthened by belief as we keep laying down one step after the other, even when it seems the goal will never be reached and we we want to quit. Very good books and very inspirational stories have been written to illustrate that we must not quit too early, if ever at all.

Those are the four critical elements for success, ones that are not so unique. You’ve probably thought about or read about each of those in many different formats before. But I believe there is a fifth element that is just as important. This one determines if we make it all the way to our destination or not.

5.  Submission - Eeeewwww! What an ugly word and one that is heavy with baggage from diverse interpretations and connotations. This is what I mean when I include submission as a critical element for success.

You can only get so far by yourself and for yourself. You might have even made significant progress toward your destination, but there comes a barrier that prohibits your forward progress and limits you. That barrier is submission. Can you put yourself aside for others? Can you submit to a higher purpose or a greater good than your own goals and rewards? Can you humble yourself to pray or to ask for help and guidance from a family member, friend, or professional colleague? If not, you will be forever limited, my friend.

If you thought decision, focus, belief, and perseverance were difficult, submission is far more difficult for many people, especially the kind of people who make BIG decisions and want to accomplish great things. They are often independent thinkers and stubborn souls. To yield is the way of winning all the way to the finish line.

Although this is a brief treatment of these five critical elements, I sincerely hope they have helped you as you construct your blueprint for success—your Plan for Progress.

I wish you well!

by Dr. Richard Porr

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